Horrible At Geography
by Setkia
Summary: 'Whatever you say,' Lily said, rolling her eyes, 'just remember, the Nile is not just a river in Egypt.' 'No, Lily, I'm pretty sure there's only one and it's in Egypt,' James said, 'you must be horrible at geography.'


_Author's Note: I was hit by this idea at 12 in the morning, wrote it on a piece of paper, went to sleep and typed it the second I woke up so sorry if it's really choppy. Please review and no flames! I don't own **Harry Potter** or there would be the Marauders series so we could actually know how Lily ended up falling in love with James and there would be more humour. Also, check out my rewriting of **Twilight**, it's better than the original, or so I'm told at least. This thing was inspired by something I made a character say in a book I wrote where his mother's boyfriend (his dad died) told him that the Nile isn't just a river in Egypt and he responded (the genius, seriously with an IQ of 178, which is higher than Einstein) said, throwing a book at his mother's boy toy as he calls him, "You must be horrible at geography!" So yeah, I get inspiration from interesting things._

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Horrible At Geography

**'Whatever you say,' Lily said, rolling her eyes, 'just remember, the Nile is not just a river in Egypt.'**

**'No, Lily, I'm pretty sure there's only one and it's in Egypt,' James said, 'you must be horrible at geography.'**

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'Today is a wonderful day, isn't it?'

Lily Evans looked up to see her fellow Head Boy walk into the Heads Common Room with a bright smile illuminating his face, his arms stretched wide as though to welcome a visitor into his humble home. This was strange.

Not to say that James Potter was often a dreary, unhappy person, however she found he didn't glow nearly as much as he was at this moment. His glasses lay crookedly on his face with his hazel eyes filled to the brim with joy, his tousled hair windswept, letting her know he had recently been on the Pitch though he wasn't wearing his Quidditch uniform, then again, James just naturally had messy hair.

'Don't you think so?'

Lily silently scolded herself. Zoning out meant that he could realise that she liked him and his head would inflate or he wouldn't care and the many other horrible outcomes that could possibly come to mind haunted her every waking moment. Damn it, what had he asked?

'I'm sorry, what did you say?'

'I said, "Don't you think that today is more wonderful than the others?" Are you okay Lily? You don't usually space out.'

'I'm fine,' Lily lied. She wouldn't look at James and as long as emerald didn't meet hazel, her secret was safe. He nodded. 'So uh, I'm curious as to why today is beyond the normal amount of wonderfulness of any other day. You gonna tell me?' Lily asked.

'Oh, no reason,' James said, smiling idiotically. 'It's just remarkably wonderful, isn't it?'

Lily stared at him amazed. He was acting like a total girl, staring out the window and resting his head on his hand as he watched the birds fly this day in early March. 'Uh, James?'

She loved the way his name rolled off her tongue, it had become her favourite word to say and considering all the words in the English language and her extensive knowledge of words that she knew that most didn't, that was saying something. There was just something about the way the vowels rolled off her tongue, the way her heart just fluttered at the sound of it.

James looked surprised. He still wasn't used to hearing her say his name, though he couldn't say he was unhappy about this new development in their friendship.

'Yes?'

'Are you in denial?'

'Denial?'

'The refusal to believe something or another,' Lily told him. 'It's a very common word you know actually.' She wouldn't admit that her friends had told her she was in denial for the longest of times before she finally discovered that she fancied James sodding Potter.

'I know what denial is,' James said.

'Then why did you ask?'

'So because I repeated the word, you assumed I didn't know what the word was?' James asked. 'Lily, we're both some of the smartest in our year- well, you're _the_ smartest.' He watched in satisfaction as Lily blushed scarlet, always Gryffindor colours. 'But surely you don't think so lowly of me, do you?'

'What was I supposed to think?'

'I was echoing for dramatic effect?' James said, raising an eyebrow.

'Ah, I'm sorry I didn't consider theatrics to be a part of the Potter Package,' Lily joked. 'Can I get a discount on it, by any chance?'

'Discount?'

'Yeah, a discount,' Lily said, confused by James' raised eyebrow.

'I was actually repeating that word cause I don't know what it means,' James admitted.

'It's another word for sale, to get something cheaper than it costs originally,' Lily told him. 'Muggle thing.'

'That explains it,' James said. Lily was a Muggle-born after all, a fact that James didn't want to forget because it only made her more amazing yet at times, it slipped his mind because of how natural she was around the wizarding community.

'So wait, how am I supposed to know when you're being dramatic and when you genuinely don't understand?' Lily asked suddenly. 'You tend to repeat what others say often.'

'Do I?' James inquired. Was she paying as much attention to him as he did her? No, that wasn't possible.

'Just wondering. Anyway, back to the subject of you and your "wonderful day"-'

'Are you questioning the wonderfulness of this day?' James asked her accusingly.

'I'm questioning why you think it's so amazing,' Lily said.

'It's nothing,' James told her.

'Whatever you say,' Lily said, rolling her eyes. 'Just remember, the Nile is not just a river in Egypt.'

'No, Lily, I'm pretty sure there's only one and it's in Egypt,' James said. 'You must be horrible at geography.'

Like James sometimes couldn't remember that Lily was Muggle-born, Lily sometimes couldn't remember that James was a pure-blood. They both defied the stereotypes placed on the labellings of their blood type.

'I forget you're a pure-blood sometimes,' Lily said. 'It's a Muggle thing, we say it when we mean denial, it's just a smartaleck way of saying that someone won't admit to something,' she shrugged. 'You know, it should be illegal to be this comfortable around you.'

_She's comfortable around me?_ James couldn't help grinning in pride at how he had made the woman who had loathed him come to be unnaturally comfortable with him in the period of a little over five months.

'Okay, give me an example,' James said.

'Well, Hestia once told me I was in denial because you were obviously flirting with me in fourth year when the Halloween Ball came around-'

'You were,' James cut in but Lily ignored him.

'Marlene told me I was in denial when I went to the Quidditch games because I didn't actually want to watch the score, she said I wanted to see you in a uniform-'

'You go to Quidditch games?' James didn't remember seeing her there but Lily seemed to have forgotten he was there.

'Mary told me I was in denial about the time in fifth year when you were cruel and Sev was changing that you were better for me than him and that Sev was going to hurt me.'

'That bastard,' James muttered through gritted teeth.

'And then they all told me I was in denial about how I fancied you-'

'Why are you always the one being told you're in denial?' James couldn't help noting, but Lily was on a rant and when she was on a rant, she listened to some things around her and responded but she wouldn't do it consciously.

'But I'm not in denial! I knew you were flirting with me during fourth year but I couldn't stand you and you were just so damn _annoying_, and I wasn't in denial about going to Quidditch games because I actually _did_ want to see the score but I had heard about the injuries you could get and I wanted to make sure you were okay and you didn't actually fall off your broom because of your stupid ego that makes me surprised you can fit into this room and I wasn't in denial about the time in fifth year because I _knew_ Sev was changing and I knew you were better than him but I didn't want to let go of my childhood and friend and I thought I could change him and I wasn't in denial when you told me that you knew I loved you on the train this year because I bloody well knew that already and you were just joking so I didn't say anything but-'

'Wait,' James said, holding up his hand. 'Repeat that last one.'

'I didn't want to let go of my childhood friend?' Lily asked, scared as she had just realised what had slipped out of her mouth. Oh damn it, he was going to let her down easily or he'd use her as a toy and then dump her in two weeks. God, why was she so _stupid_?

'After that.'

'After that?' Lily's voice squeaked. 'I said nothing! I rambled about Sev and then I just stopped talking!' Lily screamed, somewhat terrified.

'You said you love me,' James said, amazed that the redhead before him reciprocated his feelings.

'No I didn't,' Lily said quickly.

'Now Lily, the Nile isn't just a river in Egypt.'

'Look who's bad at geography now!' Lily teased.

'Lily, if it helps-'

'Can you just get it over with?' she asked, turning away from him. 'Just reject me and I'll go to the kitchens and wallow in self pity, alright?'

'You know where the kitchens are?' James said before he could help himself when he realised that this wasn't the best thing to bring up at the moment. 'I mean, you wanna know why my day is so wonderful?'

'Why James?' Lily asked bitterly. 'Why is your day so "wonderful"?'

'Because a beautiful girl just told me she loved me soon after I realised I was helplessly in love with her.'

Lily slowly turned around, her eyes filled with tears that had fallen. James walked over to her and slowly took away the tears, picking them up with his thumb.

Gently, taking her face in his hands, he kissed her.

Their lips barely touched. It was brief and it was short and it tasted of tears and felt sad yet it was perfect for Lily's first kiss.

'Lily,' James said, leaning against her forehead, his eyes closed.

'Yes James?'

'I've never been to Egypt.'

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**Edited: June 18th 2014**


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